Final Thoughts

So, that was actually just a solid basketball game, no fights or anything extra as some of you have pointed out. The lack of retaliation is the only thing that really caught me off guard in this game. I'm not surprised that Argentina played the USA as tough as they did, and I'm not surprised that the USA pulled away at the end. It was a very "Taking Care of Business" game for the USA, just something that they had to do to get the final round.

Dennis Dark-Don (@DarkDonWilliams)

@hunterfelt Team USA's ability to just pull up and hit three pointers automatically when they wantis crazy.. They make them look like FT's

As I've said all along. When Team USA hits their threes, they cannot be beaten. Certainly, however, they're going to want to play better defense in the gold medal game against Spain. It should be their biggest test of the Olympics, which is, of course, exactly what the gold round should be.

Sadly there are only two games left for USA basketball. On the women's side, USA/France will fight for the gold at 4:00pm EST (9:00pm BST) tomorrow. On the men's side, USA/Spain will tip off at 10:00am EST (3:00pm BST) on Sunday. Hope you'll follow us here at the Guardian for coverage of both games. Thanks for everyone who read and/or participated in today's liveblog. Ciao!

Updated at 10.59pm BST

10.39pm BST

Argentina 83 - USA - 109, FINAL

The "U-S-A!" chants fill the arena and Team USA dribbles out the clock. The USA will play Spain for the gold. Argentina will play Russia for the bronze.

Updated at 10.40pm BST

10.35pm BST

Argentina 80 - USA - 104, 1:12, 4th Quarter

Another close game in the first half, with the USA pulling ahead in the second half. Maybe I should stick with my boring predictions, they tend to work out better.

10.34pm BST

Argentina 73 - USA - 101, 2:37, 4th Quarter

Campazzo makes a free throw, James Harden makes a three throw...

10.32pm BST

Argentina 72 - USA - 98, 3:08, 4th Quarter

Russell Westbrook apparently got injured and is heading off the floor. That's not what the USA wanted to see in what is essentially garbage time.

Hey look it's Anthony Davis!

10.31pm BST

Argentina 72 - USA - 98, 3:54, 4th Quarter

Kevin Durant hits another three, almost just because he can. Chris Paul then lobs to Chandler for a crowd-pleasing layup.

Eric Calhoun again: "The 2008 "Redeem Team" was remarkable partially because of Coach K's mystical ability to get his NBA stars to buy into his defense-first philosophy. That all appears to be long gone, with the players putting their faith in being able to run any other team in the world off the court. So far they're right, even if the '08 will be remembered as morally superior to those who believe in "playing the right way".

I'd say this team would play better for Doc Rivers. I may be biased.*

*I am impossibly biased

10.28pm BST

Argentina 68 - USA - 93, 5:07, 4th Quarter

Now it's a good thing that the USA is playing slow. Delfino checks out for the game, and James Harden comes into the game. We should be seeing Anthony Davis any time now.

Updated at 10.28pm BST

10.27pm BST

Argentina 64 - USA - 93, 6:33, 4th Quarter

Argentina are now resting guys for the bronze medal game. So it's just about what the final score is going to be, for the gamblers out there in the audience.

10.26pm BST

Argentina 64 - USA - 93, 6:33, 4th Quarter

Carmelo Anthony hits a three while I'm writing that he just hit "back-to-back threes". This is getting ridiculous.

10.25pm BST

Argentina 64 - USA - 90, 6:35, 4th Quarter

Scola scores and Westbrook misses an open jumper, and then Delfino cuts the lead to 20.

Argentina 60 - USA - 84, 8:04, 4th Quarter

Campazzo hits a three pointer, this is not over yet.

Although Westbrook hits a basket to say it's closer to over than not.

10.22pm BST

Argentina 57 - USA - 82, 8:45, 4th Quarter

Westbrook who has been uncharacteristically quiet this game makes himself known with a three point and is immediately fouled on the other end by Ginobii. Carmelo Anthony hits a three pointer while they're over there.

10.20pm BST

Argentina 57 - USA - 76, 9:42, 4th Quarter

Iguodala finds Love for two points to start the fourth. In a limited sample size, I declare that Iguodala is perfectly fine with being a Denver Nugget.

10.18pm BST

Argentina 57 - USA - 74, end of the 3rd Quarter

Ginobili and Anthony trade off two pointers to end the scoring in the third quarter. The USA picked up some steam here, but Argentina are still very much in this one.

10.16pm BST

Argentina 55 - USA - 72, 55.7 , 3rd Quarter

And then Kevin Durant...

Okay he misses a three pointer, but it's tipped in by LeBron James. Kevin Love then fouls J. Gutierrez with only one second to shoot, gifting Argentina two points via free throw.

10.14pm BST

Argentina 53 - USA - 70, 1:50, 3rd Quarter

And then Durant hits a three to answer his own answer to their answer.

10.13pm BST

Argentina 53 - USA - 67, 2:20, 3rd Quarter

Nocioni, who has been the key player this quarter, answers with two points of his own, but Durant hits a three to answer back.

10.12pm BST

Argentina 51 - USA - 64, 3:46, 3rd Quarter

Kevin Durant draws a foul to bring it back to the USA where LeBron makes a flash-quick one-handed layup and gets fouled on the way. Spoiler alert: He makes the free-throw.

Argentina 51 - USA - 61, 4:05, 3rd Quarter

The USA needs a score here and LeBron James makes a super-easy layup to provide them. No need for degree-of-difficulty plays right now.

10.09pm BST

Argentina 51 - USA - 59, 4:53, 3rd Quarter

Ginobili cuts it to eight with a cornered-rat jumper. Durant misses a three pointer on one end... and then Deron Williams misses a three pointer and then Argentina gets the ball back.

10.07pm BST

Argentina 49 - USA - 59, 5:46, 3rd Quarter

A good timeout, Nocioni answers with a three to cut the lead to ten.

10.07pm BST

Argentina 46 - USA - 59, 6:22, 3rd Quarter

Chris Paul makes a jumper. Carmelo misses a long three, BUT the US gets it back to Kevin Durant with a few pefect passes, and Durant hits his three. Argentina calls a crucial timeout. They need a run now to prevent the USA from going crazy.

10.04pm BST

Argentina 46 - USA - 54, 6:58, 3rd Quarter

Nocioni throws the ball at an official he mistakes for a teammate, turning it over to the USA, where Kevin Durant hits a three pointer.

10.03pm BST

Argentina 46 - USA - 51, 7:45, 3rd Quarter

Ginobili gets off on a fast break, lays the ball in the basket and draws a foul in the process. Of course he hits the free throw to complete the three-point play, because he's Ginobili.

10.01pm BST

Argentina 43 - USA - 51, 8:11, 3rd Quarter

Ginobili's second three-point attempt of the third is offline but Nocioni draws a foul to keep the possession alive. Argentina keeps possession of a loose ball. Scola dives for his own miss and Scola finally gets a shot off... but it's a 24 second violation.

10.00pm BST

Argentina 43 - USA - 51, 8:52, 3rd Quarter

Nocioni picks up a technical foul, giving two free throws and possession to Team USA. Chandler tips in a LeBron miss and that was a costly tech for Argentina.

9.59pm BST

Argentina 43 - USA - 47, 9:18, 3rd Quarter

Wait, where were we, I got distracted with thoughts of Hope Solo.

That's right, Ginobili's buzzer beating three put Argentina up by 7 points. He picks up right where he left off with a three point to begin the third.

9.56pm BST

Halftime

And now we're presented with tweets from the US women's gold medal winning soccer team. (Graham Parker's liveblog of their match against Japan is here, by the way.)

9.53pm BST

Halftime

Shots of Pau Gasol playing for Spain remind me to bring up the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers somehow traded for Dwight Howard while keeping Gasol. Which makes them a very, very dangerous team in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, Andrew Bynum is taking Iguodala's place in the Philadelphia 76ers. That should be good for Bynum, because if there's anything Philly fans love it's a player who hasn't lived up to his talent level and has had motivation problems in the past.

9.49pm BST

Halftime

Doc Rivers loves Delfino. Am I the only one who totally thinks Carlos Delfino should have a bottled water named after him? Come on, would you buy a bottle of Delfino? I would.

If it's any consolation Katy, the NBC livefeed has not exactly been the smoothest of options either. Although this afternoon has been surprisingly glitch free.

I totally just jinxed this, didn't I?

9.43pm BST

Argentina 40 - USA - 47, end of the 2nd Quarter

The USA have one last shot, which LeBron hands to Kevin Love who just deposits it. Unfortunately for the USA, a wide-open Ginobili hits a three at the buzzer. Coach K cannot be happy that just happened.

9.41pm BST

Argentina 37 - USA - 45, 18.7, 2nd Quarter

Prigioni assists Scola for a layup, but then makes his second foul in a minute over on the USA side.

9.39pm BST

Argentina 35 - USA - 45, 1:05, 2nd Quarter

Ginobili draws an offensive foul from 'Melo. That's the smart plays that Argentina's going to need to keep in this thing.

Email from Eric Calhoun: "Big fan of the rebooted Team USA. I'll never be completely comfortable watching them go up against Argentina as long as Ginobili and Scola are on the team. They might be outclassed, but they'renever intimidated or afraid."

9.37pm BST

Argentina 35 - USA - 45, 1:44, 2nd Quarter

Carmelo Anthony gets a defender free path to the hoop and lays one in. Argentina wants Ginobili back in in the game.

And here comes the groin-punch footage.

9.36pm BST

Argentina 35 - USA - 43, 2:45, 2nd Quarter

Durant makes a two pointer, but Leonardo Martin Gutierrez answers with a three.

Kevin Durant gets called for traveling. So there's ONE traveling call so far.

9.35pm BST

Argentina 32 - USA - 41, 3:11, 2nd Quarter

Kobe makes a quick jumper, but does NOBODY on the US have an answer for Delfino? He makes ANOTHER three pointer.

9.33pm BST

Argentina 29 - USA - 39, 4:25, 2nd Quarter

LeBron makes his free throw to get the foul-assisted three point play, Delfino gets fouled on the other ends fouled and makes both of his free throw.

9.31pm BST

Argentina 27 - USA - 36, 5:34, 2nd Quarter

Gutierrez finally causes a stop in the action by fouling LeBron James as he's making a basket. Good for this blogger, but bad for Argentina as James gets a chance to complete a three-point play.

Here's what just happened: Following the first Delfino three, Kevin Love made a dunk, Delfino responded with a three-pointer, LeBron got assisted by Chris Paul for back-to-back layups.

Updated at 9.31pm BST

9.28pm BST

Argentina 27 - USA - 34, 5:34, 2nd Quarter

Okay now the two teams are getting into a scoring rhythm, Delfino hits a perfect three pointer to kick things off, breaking the seal almost, and both sides start scoring at will.

9.26pm BST

Argentina 21 - USA - 28, 7:32, 2nd Quarter

Love tips in his own miss in response. Ginobili tries to hit a three after a USA foul, but doesn't miss, and LeBron scores for himself on the other end.

9.25pm BST

Argentina 21 - USA - 24, 8:26, 2nd Quarter

A full minute without either team getting a shot? How did this happen?

Scola gets the first points of the quarter as soon as I type that with a tiny two-point jumper.

9.23pm BST

Argentina 19 - USA - 24, 9:13, 2nd Quarter

Have to be impressed with Argentina's energy and effort. The USA could have buried them early, but they didn't even flinch. They let the USA get a little lazy defensively, and then went on a run. Argentina have been here before.

Carmelo Anthony can't get a basket to fall, and then gets blocked on his second attempt after Argentina fouls.

9.21pm BST

Argentina 19 - USA - 24, End of the 1st Quarter

My NBC feed does a time skip over a Russell Westbrook layup, but I get to see a nice long three-pointer from Deron Williams. Juan Gutierrez gets a quick two points in for Argentina with a layup assisted by Manu Ginobili, Kevin Love' last shot is a not going to find the hoop with a geiger counter, to quote Tom Waits, and that's the end of the first quarter.

9.18pm BST

Argentina 17 - USA - 19, 1:27, 1st Quarter

Kevin Love makes one of two free throws after being fouled. J. Gutierrez gets fouled on the other end and makes two.

9.17pm BST

Argentina 15 - USA - 18, 1:52, 1st Quarter

Coach K brings in some of the subs, which is his usual reaction whenever he's seeing slippage with the starters. Both teams start playing defense on each side, including a classic LeBron block. Nocioni hits a shot and its just a three point game now.

9.14pm BST

Argentina 13 - USA - 18, 3:34, 1st Quarter

The "U-S-A" chants have already started folks. Kevin Durant misses a three, perhaps they're a bit too distracting. Delfino responds and makes a long two-pointer, and then Ginobili hits a three, Scola makes a layup.

And like that Argentina is right back in this, the USA can't afford to be this loose on defense, no matter how much they score..

9.11pm BST

Argentina 6 - USA - 18, 5:25, 1st Quarter

Argentina comes out of a timeout, and Ginobili comes in and makes a quick basket. But the Black Mamba is already loose, Kobe hits another three. He's been unconscious ever since I started to make fun of him in the last liveblog.

9.09pm BST

Argentina 4 - USA - 15, 6:44, 1st Quarter

LeBron James hits a jumper on his own, Ginobili misses a three, and Kobe makes another three. This could get out of hand. And then it does get out hand, Kevin Durant makes a steal and has all day to go into a flying one-handed dunk.

9.08pm BST

Argentina 4 - USA - 8, 7:14, 1st Quarter

If the three wasn't going in, Kobe goes for a dunk. Then he assists Chris Paul for a three. It's the Kobe show now, I guess he's happy about the Dwight Howard trade.

9.05pm BST

Argentina 4 - USA - 3, 8:50, 1st Quarter

Kobe Bryant answers with a three-pointer quickly, he's still alive. Scola answers with a second bucket. Kobe tries to answer with a deeper three that just doesn't go in.

9.04pm BST

Argentina 2 - USA - 0, 9:49, 1st Quarter

Scola scores the first two points of the game with a bucket for Argentina and we're off...

8.59pm BST

Pregame thoughts

"There is no point guard on this team. LeBron James is the point guard." - Doc Rivers

As always Doc Rivers is spot on with his analysis here, although I've wondered where that's left Chris Paul on this team. He's felt a bit like a luxury here rather than the guy running the team.

On second thought, if that's one of the flaws on your team: Not enough for Chris Paul to do... That's kinda nitpicking isn't it? #TeamUSAProblems

8.53pm BST

Predictions

Can I be really boring and predict that this is going to be pretty much like the last match between the USA and Argentina? Close game for the first half, the USA pulls away in the second, at least one incident where both teams jaw at each other? I'd love to be wrong here, of course, the closer the game is in the final two minutes or so, the better the basketball game.

Argentinan National Team Lineup

Here's the Argentinian lineup. It'll be especially interesting whenever Campazzo is on court. Will there be retribution on the USA's side? Will the officials be on the lookout? This could be a whistle-heavy game.

Preamble

On Wednesday, the US men's basketball team survived an early scare in the Olympics quarterfinals against an Australian team that had played them close to the half, eventually defeating them 119-86. Thanks to a triple-double from LeBron James, who is determined to prove that he's not only the best player in the NBA but also the best player in the world, and a three-pointing barrage from a resurrected Kobe Bryant, Team USA were able to transform a tight game into a blowout. Now they must face, for the second time in three games, an Argentinian team that wants nothing more than pull off another upset like they did when they eliminated the USA in 2004 semifinals. The winner will face Spain, who defeated Russia 67-59 earlier today, in the gold medal match.How much do these teams not like each other? Sparking off what is looking like an unfortunate trend in the 2012 Olympics, Argentina's Facundo Campazzo delivered, supposedly in retaliation for an earlier hit by Chris Paul, a cheap shot right in Carmelo Anthony's, um, groin-ish at the end of the third quarter when last these two teams met, a 126-97 USA win. As one can imagine the two teams played each other with a bit more edge in the fourth quarter, and there's a good chance that the two teams will still be a bit chippy. Not that either team needs extra motivation. After all, the winner today gets to play for the gold medal, and the loser has to scrape by and fight for the bronze. For a team that likened itself to the 1992 "Dream Team", the bronze medal is simply not an option for the USA men's team.

To get to that gold medal round, the men could do worse than take some inspiration from their counterparts in the USA women's basketball team, who also had some difficulties putting away Australia in their 86-73 win in the semifinals. The US women, despite having some difficulty getting the recognition of their male peers, are arguably having an even better Olympics. The unbeaten USA women's team play in the finals tomorrow against the similarly unbeaten France at 4:00pm EST (9:00pm BST).

Of course, there are some unexpected distractions for the men's team that the women's team did not have yesterday. The Los Angeles Lakers finally pulled off a trade to get Dwight Howard (who was penciled in as the Olympics squad's starting center before he withdrew because of back surgery) from the Orlando Magic. In the course of that four-team trade, Team USA's Andre Iguodala was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Denver Nuggets. So Iguodala has to play today adjusting for the fact that he'll be playing with a brand new team next season while Kobe Bryant woke up with the knowledge that he was going to be playing with Dwight Howard next NBA season. With Kobe's Lakers now rivaling the Oklahoma City Thunder as the team to beat in the Western Conference, one wonders if there's been any trash talk in London between Kobe and the Thunder's Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Not that I expect this NBA news to cause too much of a distraction during the Olympics, although these games may seem more like NBA games than international ones. After the quarterfinal game against Australia I received this email from David Lobina:

I was wondering if it would not be such a bad idea to at least mention, or perhaps even discuss, some of the travel violations the American players commit, which for some reason are hardly ever called. I mean, I was watching the game on the BBC, and whilst those two/three triples Kobe hit one after the other in the fourth quarter were certainly very spectacular, two of those came after CLEAR travels, one by Kobe himself and one by Paul. In fact, the US players travel often in matches, especially in transition -at least according to the FIBA rules, which are supposed to apply at the Olympics

He brings up some interesting points: Are these games being called differently for the USA team, or just in general? What do you think? If you have thoughts, questions or comments about this, or any other aspect of this game, email them to hunter.felt.freelance@guardiannews.com or tweet them @HunterFelt. It's a rematch between the USA and Argentina and it's coming up at 4:00 EST or 9:00m BST. Lineups will be coming shortly.